WorldEdit on Your Minecraft Server: How to Install It and the Most Used Commands

What you need

On Paper (or Spigot, Purpur) WorldEdit is a plugin; on Fabric and NeoForge it exists as a mod. Either way it only has to be on the server: players don't need to install anything. On NapNodes Minecraft servers come with Paper.

Use it yourself (or your builders), not everyone: one mistyped command changes thousands of blocks at once. That's why, out of the box, only ops can use it.

If you plan to protect areas with WorldGuard (the anti-griefing guide), you need it too: WorldGuard uses WorldEdit selections to mark out regions.

Installing it

1. Make a backup

   In the panel, “Backups”. Before any big edit, another one.

2. Find it in “Mods & plugins”

   Search for WorldEdit and install it: the panel only shows what works with your Minecraft version and server type.

3. Restart

   When it starts, the plugins/WorldEdit folder appears with its config.yml and, once you save one, the schematics folder.

Selecting an area

1. Grab the wand

   //wand gives you a wooden axe. With it, left-clicking a block marks the first corner and right-clicking marks the second: the selection is the box between the two.

2. Or without the wand

   //pos1 and //pos2 mark the corner where you're standing; //hpos1 and //hpos2, the block you're looking at.

3. Adjust it

   //expand 10 up stretches it 10 blocks upwards (up, down, north, south, east and west all work); //contract shrinks it. //size tells you how many blocks you've selected: check that number before changing anything.

The most used commands

//set followed by a block fills the whole selection: //set stone. To clear an area, //set air. You can mix blocks with percentages: //set 70%stone,30%cobblestone.

//replace swaps some blocks for others only inside the selection: //replace dirt grass_block. //walls places only the walls and //faces, walls, floor and ceiling.

Copy and paste: //copy copies the selection relative to where you're standing; you go somewhere else and //paste pastes it in the same position relative to you. //paste -a doesn't paste the air (it doesn't erase what's around it). //rotate 90 rotates it and //flip flips it before pasting. //cut copies and leaves air behind.

Shapes: //sphere stone 5 makes a sphere with radius 5 where you are and //hsphere, a hollow one; //cyl stone 5 10, a cylinder with radius 5 and 10 high (//hcyl, hollow); //pyramid stone 8, a pyramid.

Water and lava: //drain 10 removes water or lava within a radius of 10 blocks and //fixwater 10 fixes a lake that flows oddly.

Undoing: //undo

//undo undoes your last edit and //redo redoes it. //undo 5 undoes the last five. WorldEdit keeps each player's latest edits while the server stays on; when it restarts, they're lost. For anything you can't undo that way, go back to the backup.

Schematics: saving a build and pasting it in another world

1. Save it

   Select it, //copy and //schem save castle. It's saved as plugins/WorldEdit/schematics/castle.schem.

2. Paste it wherever you want

   //schem load castle and //paste. //schem list shows the ones you have.

3. Upload one from outside

   If you've downloaded a build as a .schem, upload it to that folder from the panel's “Files” and load it the same way. It works the other way too: download it from “Files” to take it to another server.

Permissions: who can use it

Ops can use all of it. To give it to a builder without making them op (an op can also ban people or stop the server), use LuckPerms from the panel console: lp user Name permission set worldedit.* true. For a whole group, lp group builders permission set worldedit.* true; how to create groups is in the LuckPerms guide.

To set a cap, in plugins/WorldEdit/config.yml, the limits section has max-blocks-changed: the maximum number of blocks one command can change (out of the box, -1: no limit). With a cap such as 100000, one //set too many won't bring the server down.

If the server freezes

WorldEdit does each edit in one go: millions of blocks in one command freeze the server for a few seconds (or more) and sometimes crash it. Do big edits in chunks, with few people online, and check //size first.

If you're going to move huge areas often, FastAsyncWorldEdit (FAWE) does the same with the same commands, but spreads the work out. It replaces it: you remove WorldEdit and add FAWE, not both. If you can't find it in “Mods & plugins”, upload it manually to the plugins folder from “Files”.

And if memory runs short with big edits, so does the server: on NapNodes the plan's RAM is yours alone and, if it falls short, you can give it more without reinstalling.

Frequently asked questions